How to Make a Quilt Label with Machine Embroidery

February 10, 2019

How to Make a Quilt Label with Machine Embroidery

How to Make a Quilt Label

Adding a quilt label to a quilt gift is a great way to add a personal touch and provide information to future generations. If you’ve wanted to learn how to make a quilt label, first decide on the design. Add just a name, a message or simply a design with initials. Make the label as big or as small as you like.

I always add a quilt label after the construction is complete. I hand stitch it to the back of the quilt along the lower-left corner. I didn’t intend to have a “signature quilt label” when I made my first one, but the location has become my signature and makes my work more identifiable. Decide the location of your label first, and then determine its size and design.

How-To Embroider

Load the design onto the machine. Use the machine editing functions to resize, move or otherwise alter the design as desired. Add a name, message or initials beside the design, above or below it. When satisfied with the design and placement of motifs within the hoop on the machine screen, group the designs and save your work.

Choose a fabric scrap for the quilt-label center, making sure it’s large enough for the chosen embroidery design to fit, including seam allowances.

If the fabric is large enough to hoop, layer it with Tear-Easy stabilizer in the hoop. If it’s too small to hoop, use Sulky Sticky+, a self-adhesive tear-away stabilizer on a paper-release sheet, and then place the fabric right side up over the hooped sticky stabilizer.

Place the hoop onto the machine. Then embroider the design using 40 wt rayon thread and an embroidery needle.

After the embroidery is complete, remove the work from the hoop. Gently remove the stabilizer from the design wrong side. Press the work from the wrong side, without steam.